A Nelson artist was hoping to carve something up in order to draw tourists to the Queen City of the Kootenays.
Ian Patrick Andrew MacIsaac is a self-proclaimed chainsaw artist and spoke to city council last month.
MacIsaac said he’s living in his truck down at Cottonwood Lake Regional Park and says the area is like a bowl that allows him to ply his craft while keeping the noise for spreading outside the area.
MacIsaac would like to turn one of the two old cedar trees on the north edge of Cottonwood Lake Regional Park into large hand chairs that would be photography magnets for tourists visiting the city.
“And I want to have these hand chairs put around the town, like up on Pulpit Rock, one out at the Bluffs (Lyon’s Bluff) and one at the Svoboda. Then you guys can go with your tourism and say where else can you have a view like this, sitting in the hand?” MacIsaac said.
Council told him the cedars are actually in the Regional District of Central Kootenay jurisdiction and he would have to speak to RDCK about allowing them to be used.
But the idea will have to wait for another day.
RDCK spokesman Dan Elliott told Vista Radio the trees have been milled and the wood is being used for the park’s accessibility project. They are being used for “infrastructure, including decks, railings, and kiosks throughout the park,” Elliott said in an email.
The RDCK also never received a request from a chainsaw artist, Elliott added.
No one held accountable for felled cedars
The two cedars, estimated to be between 300 and 450 years old, were felled by poachers in 2019.
Nelson RCMP Cpl. Derek Pitt told Vista Radio there have been no leads in the case and nobody was caught.
“Nobody came forward with any information regarding that so we’re at the point where we’re mostly relying on somebody to come forward with some information to give us some leads,” Pitt said.
Had someone been found, they would have faced mischief charges, Pitt explained.